TORONTO - Just before going on vacation for two weeks, York Catholic District School Board trustee Micheal Carnovale called one of his colleagues to ask if she could look after some parents' concerns while he was away.

It’s this kind of dedication that characterized Mr. Carnovale’s 16-year career as trustee, says friend and board chair Elizabeth Crowe.

TORONTO - Maureen Curtis has fond memories as a St. Clare Elementary School student and will be celebrating and reminiscing with other alumni on the school’s legacy of faith and formation over its 100-year history.

The school marks its 100th anniversary this year with an Open House and a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Clare Church celebrated by Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins on Sept. 29. There was also a school blessing and the unveiling of a new statue of St. Clare at the school. And an archival display of St. Clare’s history since it opened in September 1910, including school and class photos, was to be featured. An alumni reunion was planned for Oct. 2.

TORONTO - Archbishop Thomas Collins has given the green light to campaigning for the Oct. 25 school board trustee election on Church property across the archdiocese.

Neil MacCarthy, the Toronto archdiocese’s spokesperson, said this signals an opening up of parish halls to all-candidate meetings for those running for trustee.

TORONTO - As a recent graduate from teachers’ college, Guelph, Ont.’s Jesse Lloyd, a non-Catholic, applied to teach at a Catholic school a few years ago.

But he says didn’t get the job because of the requirement to be Catholic.

In his college days, he remembers how a few of his colleagues talked about being lapsed Catholics and having to relearn their Catholicism — or at least put up an appearance of Catholicity — in order to qualify for a teaching position at a Catholic school.

TORONTO - When he was in Grade 8, John Kostoff had a choice to make: attend a prestigious high school with a longstanding tradition in academics and sports or an up-and-coming, smaller Toronto school run by the Holy Ghost Fathers.

Kostoff had seen a newspaper photo of a child from Nigeria holding a sign reading “Thank you, Neil McNeil.” That sealed the deal for Kostoff, who chose Neil McNeil High School because of the school’s active involvement in helping survivors of the 1967-70 Nigerian Civil War.

A Quebec parents’ group is hailing a court ruling that allows a private Montreal Catholic high school to be exempt from a provincially mandated ethics course as a victory for freedom of religion and parental rights.

On June 21, Quebec’s Superior Court slammed the “totalitarian” approach of the Quebec government and ruled that Loyola High School can not be forced to teach the controversial Ethics and Religious Culture course because it infringes upon their charter rights of free expression and religion.

AJAX, Ont. - There was nothing special about Jenny Lawlor’s prom night. It’s Lawlor who is special.

Lawlor has Down syndrome and is one of about 25 special needs students at Archbishop Denis O’Connor High School in Ajax. Every year a few of the special needs kids attend the prom along with the graduating students.

The special needs students are no less a part of 900-strong student body than any one else, said principal Mary Curran. That’s simple and obvious.

TORONTO - Timmins Catholic school trustee Colleen Landers fully expects to be laying off teachers in April and then hoping to rehire them over the summer. She and her colleagues on the Northeastern Catholic District School Board have sent out a sheaf of just-in-case pink slips before, and it's become part of the normal and chaotic budgeting routine for many school boards.

TORONTO - The 416 and 905 area codes rounded off 2006 by continuing on separate paths over the financing of Catholic  education.

TORONTO - The Catholic school board in the rich and growing suburbs squeezed in between Toronto and Hamilton is worried.